Sanskrit
कर्मणः सुकृतस्याहुः सात्त्विकं निर्मलं फलम् । रजसस्तु फलं दुःखमज्ञानं तमसः फलम् ॥
karmaṇaḥ sukṛtasyāhuḥ sāttvikaṃ nirmalaṃ phalam rajasas tu phalaṃ duḥkham ajñānaṃ tamasaḥ phalam
Translation
It is said the fruit of a good action is harmonious and spotless; verily the fruit of Motion is pain, and the fruit of Inertia unwisdom.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The causal logic of the gunas extends beyond death into ordinary karma-phala: the fruit of sattvic action is pure and spotless, of rajasic action is pain, of tamasic action is unwisdom itself. It’s a tighter, more specific claim than the general teaching on non-attachment to results elsewhere in the Gita — here the quality of the guna behind an act determines the quality of what that act yields, independent of whether the actor is attached to the outcome or not. Each guṇa has a characteristic yield: sattva → pure fruit, rajas → duḥkha, tamas → ajñāna. Chapters 17 and 18 will run this same three-way sort through faith, food, sacrifice, austerity, gift, knowledge, action, and happiness.
Study deeper
Word by word
- karmaṇaḥ sukṛtasyāhuḥकर्मणः सुकृतस्याहुः
- of a good action, they say (karmaṇaḥ + sukṛtasya + āhuḥ)
- sāttvikaṃ nirmalaṃ phalamसात्त्विकं निर्मलं फलं
- the fruit is sattvic, pure (sāttvikam + nirmalam + phalam)
- rajasas tu phalaṃ duḥkhamरजसस् तु फलं दुःखं
- but the fruit of rajas is pain (rajasaḥ + tu + phalam + duḥkham)
- ajñānaṃ tamasaḥ phalamअज्ञानं तमसः फलं
- ignorance is the fruit of tamas (ajñānam + tamasaḥ + phalam)
Commentary
Site Commentary
This is a sharper claim than the Gita’s more famous teaching on non-attachment to results. It’s not saying “act without attachment and the fruit won’t matter” — it’s saying the fruit’s very character, pure, painful, or ignorant, is set by which guna produced the action, whether or not the actor was attached to the outcome. Detachment changes your relationship to the fruit; it doesn’t change what kind of fruit a rajasic or tamasic action actually grows.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
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Lessons
Personal
- Don't assume that simply not caring about the outcome makes a rushed, resentful, or lazy action neutral — the quality you put into an act shapes the quality of what comes back from it, independent of how attached you felt to the result.
Professional
- Don't assume shipping with the right emotional detachment excuses shipping work done in a rushed or careless state — the quality of the underlying effort shows up in the outcome regardless of how little you claimed to care about the result.
Family & Social
- Don't assume that being emotionally unattached to how a favor or gesture for family turns out excuses doing it resentfully or carelessly — the spirit behind the act still shapes what it actually delivers to the people receiving it.
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